Browsing Tag

milk paint

Knitting Nancy

When I was young I learnt to knit using a knitting nancy. It was a beautiful wooden lady and using her to knit was rather magical. When I heard that my young neice enjoys crafting, I decided to share some knitting nancy magic with her.

I looked in craft shops for one, but only found crude, ugly plastic ones. So I decided to make one, but it wasn’t until I read a post at Hinterland Mama about knitting nancy’s that I was truly inspired!

Off I went to our local hardware store where I bought  a wooden chair foot. Husband of Mine happened to be using the drill that afternoon, and quickly drilled out a hole for me. Using the dremmel I softened the edges and sanded so the wool won’t snag.

To decorate it, I decided to use the wood burner, followed by milk paint. Next I hammered in the nails before leaving it smelling delicious with a beeswax and olive oil treatment 🙂

I can’t wait to see what Tia creates with it! Or to make more 😉

Happy crafting, Kelly

January 1, 2012 by

A donsy of winter gnomes

I was sure the collective noun for gnomes would be gaggle, but turns out I was wrong! So, I’ve been busy creating my own – donsy – of winter gnomes for the wonderful Winter Waldorf Swap hosted by Nicole at One Hook Wonder (thank you again Nicole!!).

My donsy of winter gnomes!

I’m super excited to be part of this swap. The idea of sharing crafts from all over the world is fantastic! A nature table in itself is beautiful and special, but to have one where all the items will have a special story is something extra special 🙂

In making my gnomes I was inspired by the constant winter rains where I grew up in country Victoria and the very occasional snow fall (as in once every few years). I got the wood burner going (probably my favourite step) before using the jigsaw and then the dremmel (I think I’ve now used these tools more than husband of mine… *shhh*).

Rain gnomes

After that I hand sanded them, before my next favourite part – helping them ‘come to life’ with milk paint (and because it’s spring here I think a little of it might have snuck in… oops). Before finally coating them in an olive oil and beeswax finish, mmm love that scent!

The gnomes then sat to dry on the table and the next thing I knew they were all ‘chatting’ to each other courtesy of Master D 🙂

And now my gaggle donsy of gnomes is ready to ‘fly the nest’ to distant lands. Be free my little gnomes 😉

 Thanks for reading, Kelly

November 13, 2011 by